This post from yesterday about Senator Voinovich "reasserting" himself into party leadership got me thinking about a number of things regarding leadership, politics, and the party. It is cliche to say that politics is war by other means, but it is often true in a sense. I find the adage to be a bit silly in a time when our brave men and women in uniform are engaged in a real war, but the perception is there anyway...Let's try to zero in on a framework for a discussion and there is no better place to start than with Sun Tzu's Art of War:
1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.Let's break this down a bit...
2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.
5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.
The art of war is of vital importance to the State.
How can we trust Senator Voinovich with this most sacred trust? He is on the downside of his career in politics and as Mark Naymik pointed out in the first few paragraphs of his piece, Voinovich has even lost a coveted committee appointment to a lesser experienced politician.
If politics is war by other means and Voinovich isn't capable of winning the simplest of battles against opponents his junior, how can we possibly expect him to take on Chris Redfern, Governor Strickland and the rest of the gang that fallout from Tom Noe left us with? This is the guy who thinks invasive species are actually terrorists and should be treated as such.
If someone from Washington DC needs to take on a leadership role in the Ohio Republican Party, it ought to be somebody who has displayed genuine leadership like Republican Leader John Boehner and not a perennial back-bencher in the world's most debilitating body like George Voinovich.
It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
Shall we revisit the Bolton Affair? President Bush wanted to appoint John Bolton to be the ambassador of the United States of America to that cesspool of corruption and anti-Americanism known as the United Nations. Bolton was the perfect choice as someone who is serious about real reform at the UN.
George Voinovich was so disturbed by this prospect that he actually took to the floor of the United States Senate and wept. He made quite the spectacle of himself; which, I think, was really the point of the whole charade. By "reasserting" himself in to the Bolton confirmation, Voinovich scored points with the very same liberals and media types (but I repeat myself) who would quickly destroy him if he were to assume any position of real authority with the party.
Did George Voinovich learn his lesson from this blunder? Nope. After coming to the realization (and too late to actually do something about it, I might add) that John Bolton was a decent man with exactly the sort of credentials we were looking for to man the UN post, George Voinovich "reasserted" himself in to the Iraq War with similar results.
The Moral Law
The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
Does George Voinovich reflect Ohio Republican values or George Voinovich's values? For this, we need to take another look at the Hannity Incident... America's Dumbest Member of Congress called in to the Sean Hannity radio show for what should have been a series of softball questions but turned in to the most embarrassing moment for Ohio conservatives in history.
Voinovich demonstrated he had no clue what the Fairness Doctrine was. This was pretty strange given some of his colleagues were clamoring to reinstate the rule that required broadcasters to provide all sides of important policy issues.Mark Weaver:
"Fairness Doctrine – I'm all for it, whatever it is," he said. "I think everyone should be open to show the other side. That's what you do every night on Fox. That's great!"
When Hannity reminded Voinovich that the Fairness Doctrine would establish government regulatory bureaucracies to enforce this balance, Voinovich quickly retreated. He also misinterpreted the results of a vote in the Senate hours earlier.
Let's just say he didn't handle himself real well.
Then earlier this month Voinovich was back in the news for a simply astonishing quote attributed to him.
When Sen. John McCain returned from a trip to Iraq, he told some of his colleagues the most dangerous threat for U.S. troops was al-Qaida.
How did Voinovich respond?
"Al-Qaida wouldn't be in Iraq if American forces weren't there!" he retorted.
Of course, he's right. If American forces weren't in Iraq, al-Qaida would be right here!
“George Voinovich is not well-suited to a cross-fire type of environment where the issues are solved in 10-second sound bytes and the answers are black and white.”Like it or not, that is the political environment today. If George Voinovich doesn't have what it takes to play in the Big Leagues, maybe he ought to hang 'em up for good.
Again, is this who we want squaring off against Chris Redfern or Ted Strickland?
Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
In the political realm, situational awareness, as in combat, is an important asset. Take another look at the Hannity Incident if you still think that Senator has a sense of what is important to Republicans in Ohio.
There is a time and place for attack, defense and holding action. What evidence exists that would illustrate that George Voinovich possesses the instinct to know what to do? I'm not really seeing any...
Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
This is another situational awareness type of thing and again, I don't think George Voinovich has the capacity to know when or where to strike. Let's take his "deficit hawk" argument against the border fence as an example of the senators awareness of the political landscape.
He defended being the sole vote against securing our southern border by saying it was "a fiscally irresponsible amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill because of his concern that it would burden our children and grandchildren with another $3 billion of debt." Pretty much everybody has highlighted that, so what is missing?
Voinovich is no deficit hawk.
Voinovich wanted to raid Social Security... He voted for the Bridge to Nowhere...twice.
Here is $4.5 million for sewers in Columbus...
Matt Naugle points out that Voinovich supports government handouts to Big Corn...
Voinovich was against the Bush tax cuts...
Voinovich has a 41 Earmark Reform Rating from Porkbusters on the anti-pork amendments offered earlier this year.
But it was the border fence that was a bridge too far for the senator...
The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
George Voinovich stands for the virtues of being America's Dumbest Member of Congress, the Bridge to Nowhere, "Courage" in the eyes of the media and fellow liberals, and the Fairness Doctrine (whatever that is...)
Does George Voinovich reflect the sort of leader that the Ohio Republican Party needs right now???
A number of us in the Ohio rightysphere gave Speaker of the Ohio House Jon Husted a lot of grief for cautiously returning the embrace of Governor Strickland after having passed his budget. That picture has become the very symbol of what sort of leadership we could expect from George Voinovich if he were to successfully "reassert" himself into the state party leadership. How do I know? The senator told us so...
"I think that he's got a really good start," Voinovich said in a recent interview. "I think he has some really good people advising him. I think he's not made any major mistakes and he's doing lots of good things."Kevin DeWine, the state party's newest addition to the leadership team, made a similar gaffe awhile back, but appears to have learned his lesson and hasn't had a repeat perfromance. Speaker Husted did the same thing. Does anybody think George Voinovich will learn this lesson? And why didn't he learn the lesson from DeWine or Husted?
By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
What this boils down to is competence, judgement and the ability to inspire. George Voinovich strikes out on three straight pitches...
He who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.
When it comes to real leadership, George Voinovich is a failure.
UPDATE: Thanks for the honor, Tom... :)
